Words from Others on this Topic

But the point is, I guess, that my politics has always been premised on the notion that the differences we have on this planet are real. They’re profound. And they cause enormous tragedy as well as joy. But we’re just a bunch of humans with doubts and confusion. We do the best we can. And the best thing we can do is treat each other better because we’re all we’ve got.

Barack Obama, 01 Jun 2021, from the podcast “The Ezra Klein Show”

Not until we showed them some of the stuff we got at Dachau, that George Stevens photographed with his crew, did it actually impinge itself on the mind of the horror, the horror of this whole thing. Man, the highest of all the animals… the Man who created God… to end up here in a pile of bones, burned… it left me just speechless, colorless, bloodless. I couldn’t possibly believe that there was this kind of savagery in the world, you see.

Frank Capra, from Capra Interview with Bill Moyers

Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like, Valerio, such as reading to your little boy, or showing him a thing you love, or singing him a song, or putting on his shoes, keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that it is so.

Nick Cave, from the blog post “The Red Hand Files”

So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distrinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts.

James Madison, 1787, from the paper “The Federalist no. 10”

Relevant Reference Models

Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience

• An element of Humanist Manifesto III

Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness

• An element of Humanist Manifesto III